Principal Instigators

March Sadness [UNLOCKED FOR NON-PATRONS]

On this very special (unlocked) episode, Sandra and Dan(i) shepherd Liv through the listener-created March Sadness™ bracket, and witness apotheosis

One Weird Trick™ to Fund Science in Perpetuity

From 2021 to 2024, many Americans were worried that Trump would begin a second term as president in 2025, and slash federal funding for scientific research. But the leaders of the Democratic party rose to the top for a reason: namely, their clear-eyed insight into the best strategies for achieving their party's goals. On today's episode, Sandra, Liv, and Dan discuss how the Biden White House and Democrats in Congress worked together to (almost-but-not-quite) protect funding for American science (particularly the National Science Foundation), through One Weird Trick™, regardless of the outcome of the 2024 general election.

The People Who Die Are Still Dead

Sandra, Liv, and Dan are back to discuss the impacts of Trump and DOGE on science from destroying the scientific progress our society is based on to somehow making grad school even worse, including their most heinous crime: getting us to defend the status quo

Introductory Statistics for Unwashed Rationalists

What happens when you combine internet libertarians’ favorite woman, questionably-supported statistical analyses of human sexuality, and show tunes written by guys from a prediction market? On today’s episode, Liv shows Sandra and Dan why the answer is “psychic damage.” Content warning: sex and sexual assault, transphobia

You say Land Back, Lee Berger says out to space

The past year and a half has been quite eventful for National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger. He has made big claims about fire and burials and art. Far less attention has been paid to the pair of white men who are using paleoanthropology as an excuse to buy up land outside of Johannesburg, South Africa—and the fact that their wacky antics might have increased the value of that land, and any future fossils found there, had said antics not been met with such widespread condemnation from the scientific community. What if we can’t fully grasp the meaning of reprehensible publicity stunts unless we think about the economic incentives for landowners whose recent moves will grant them even greater control over future paleoanthropological discoveries?